The story of five dogs, raised by two and half people, all for one common goal.

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

If He's Not Broken, Do You Fix Him?

Well, we asked. We asked again. I won't say that we downright begged, but I've considered it. Since Tai turned about four months old, we began asking the school -

"Are you going to fix this one?"

You see, with all of our dogs being left intact until at LEAST fourteen months, and two of those being male, it would be different to have a dog neutered early. Before the hormones. You see where this is going. We finally did get an email from the school, finally. "Sorry, guys, we're going to leave him intact for awhile". The school did schedule a "pre-evaluation" for him (and possibly the two remaining brothers) to go to the school this weekend, and come home next Wednesday. We're really not certain what they can to in such a short amount of time (being only six months and not fully developed yet, most medical tests wouldn't be appropriate), but hey! It's the will of the school, and heck, maybe we just aren't destined to have pup fixed early.

Lest you think I'm being hard on him, Tai's not a bad pup (he really is a good boy) - he's just BIG, and truly, hasn't developed any of the behaviors yet that would come from being intact. But as our obedience instructor said last night:

"He's six months now? In six more months, that's going to be a whole lot of dog to be intact!"

Our point exactly. So right now, Tai has two career paths, "options", as it were: be a guide, or be a potential breeder. But it might be easier from a behavioral standpoint if they were to remove his "options" sooner rather than later!